Start 17.45
Decided that as it wasn't so hot that I would go out earlier than usual and set off out towards the sluice at Eemnes. Took a wee detour on the dead-end path to let Rimmer have some safe time off the lead and then clipped him on again and set off on the long straight road past the various farms. The farm I've passed often before had the 3 Rottweilers jumping about on their side of the ditch as usual. They were posing so nicely in their See-me-I'm-a-tough-guard-dog way that I was about to stop and take a photo of them when one of them suddenly jumped over the ditch and came towards us on the road. Quickly followed by the other 2. I had visions of Rimmer
being torn limb from limb and I think he did too because he wasn't looking happy. I shouted 'GO AWAY GO AWAY' a lot at the top of my voice but they weren't going anywhere and were definitely working up to an attack of some sort. So they were circling, I was shouting, Rimmer was yelping and then I must have tripped over either the lead or one of the 16 doglegs that were milling about me and I was on the ground. I remember thinking that this was not really a good place to be as with aggressive dogs it's better to be higher than they are but I couldn't manage to stand up so just stayed where I was, crouching over the terrified Rimmer and still yelling my lungs out. All this noise must have been too much for the dogs because they slunk off back onto their own side of the ditch. There was still no sign of anyone coming to see what all the noise was about so I yelled 'HALLO!' a few times and eventually the farmer appeared and asked me if I'd fallen over and if I was allright. When I told him his dogs had attacked us and that I didn't know if we were all right he turned a bit white. Rimmer was still squealing like a stuck pig and I was scared to look as it sounded at the very least as if I'd have to scrape his entrails off the ground but when I finally unfurled and pulled him out from under me there was actually no visible damage. 
By this time a woman and a few kids had appeared and they took me into the kitchen to sit down and have a glass of water. The farmer said that when he'd heard the shouting he just thought it was kids as there's been a lot of noisy teenages cycling past yelling recently but when he heard what sounded like real panic he'd decided to come and look anyway. The dogs had never done anything like this before and he suspects it's because one of the bitches is coming into heat. I see now that they weren't 'proper' aggressive dogs as they had every chance to inflict serious damage on us and didn't. I only have a scratch on my shoulder and a few scrapes on my hand. But I didn't know that at the time and it was pretty scary and someone else might have been well-traumatised by such an incident. When I'd examined Rimmer and couldn't see any blood anywhere and brushed myself down the farmer offered to run me home in the car but I preferred to go by myself as my run had been so rudely interrupted when I'd barely done half an hour. I'd not thought to stop my stopwatch of course so had no accurate idea of my time, so put it back to zero and ran the exact route home again at roughly the same speed.
This afternoon (Tuesday) I went out to the farm in the car to let them know that the dog was ok (I had considered taking him to a vet for a check-up but there really was no sign of any injury) and to ask if they could perhaps rig up some sort of electric fence to keep the dogs in. The next person might be more inclined to get the police involved and it would be a shame
if the dogs got into trouble because they really aren't as dangerous as they look. However there was no-one about so I just took a photo of one of the dogs who came to meet the car. I didn't think getting out on their territory was a great idea, though they seemed perfectly friendly and didn't even bark. I'll phone later.(Later) Just spoke with the woman who was there yesterday and she says that they're going to get the invisible fence fixed so that the dogs can't leave the property without getting a shock from their collars. There was something not working properly on it apparantly. She's going to phone me when it's done.
(Few days later) Found a number of wound scabs on Rimmer's back right leg so he did get bitten, glad in a way that all that squealing wasn't just from panic. They're clean and healing fine and are not deep (or I would have seen them bleeding at the time).
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